


A Family on the Run

by SincerelyYourNightmare



Category: Stargate Atlantis, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Stargate Atlantis Fusion, Crossover, probably a proper one later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 17:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13171962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SincerelyYourNightmare/pseuds/SincerelyYourNightmare
Summary: What it says on the tin.Spoilers on timeline and deaths for TWD S1+2Later chapters may change the warnings and come on, this is TWD + Wraith. It's gonna get gory.





	A Family on the Run

**Author's Note:**

> Hey readers! I'm new here as a poster but a long-time lurker etc etc. Constructive criticism welcome and any grammar catches would be awesome (keep in mind that Britishism-slips are inevitable). I haven't posted here before, but believe me, I've more than dabbled in fanfiction writing.  
> I won't be updating all that regularly, because RL.  
> Hope you enjoy!

While Rick had seen many atrocious things happening to many good people over the years, it always snuck up on him: that horrible clenching of the throat that threatened to overwhelm him whenever the group, the _family_ , was culled and forced to move on once again. Within the confines of a ragged tent on yet another anonymous planet, Rick found new ways to berate himself.

There hadn't been enough guards on the Ring; the small group of people that had decided to wash clothes in the river hadn't known what to watch for; he had been so focussed on scouting the caves to the East, he had forgotten to check for a clear line of sight to the river banks.

Dear gods and spirits, the screaming threatened to echo in his ears for many hours to come. Rick shivered in the warm midday heat.

The planet they had stopped Ring-hopping at was mainly gently rolling hillside and woodland in the far distance, which soothed everyone's frayed nerves, despite the high noon sun. Running from world to world was exhausting, even when it hadn't been thirty long hours since the last time they had rested.

Pushing his tent door-flap aside, Rick shuffled outside to the small campfire that all the tents had been set up around. Not surprisingly, Daryl was sitting languidly by the last dying embers, as still as only a seasoned hunter could be. With no acknowledgement, Rick sat down next to him on the soft moss around the smouldering fire and breathed in the scent of smoke, grass and unwashed person.

"Not your fault, Rick," Daryl croaked quietly, sounding like he had something caught in his throat too. Making a non-committal noise at the man, the leader fidgeted with the greenery under his body, ripping pieces off and chucking them at the fire. It was always Daryl that could understand not wanting to talk, but needing to be told anyway. Rick knew that guilt was useless after the fact, but he couldn't just switch it off. Using it as a motivator had come easy after the first few times the group had become a couple of members short.

"Otis. Jimmy. Amy. Patricia. _Sophia_ ," Rick felt and heard his voice crack, his hands falling listlessly back to his side. There was shifting of material beside him, but he didn't look, his gaze firmly on the movements of the orange shapes flickering in front of him. "They left her there, her body right in front of the Ring. Taunting. All that looking, just wasted time that we didn't have to spare."

Rick didn't react to the pelt that was dropped onto his shoulders, although his breathing evened out a bit. Daryl sat back down, one elbow on his bent knee, his arm supporting the weight of his head. Never one for useless words, the hunter picked up the quiver of crossbow bolts that was lying on a bed of grass next to his leg and began inspecting the hardened tips for cracks and weaknesses.

"Andrea..." Rick trailed off, a worried tone evident in his voice. "Think she'll make it? She did have to mercy-kill her own sister barely a week ago. Beth saw Patricia go into the light right in front of her. And Carol, gods, _Carol_."

Daryl stopped rubbing at the metal between his fingers and considered the question seriously. Rick appreciated the deliberation. "Yeah," came the drawling answer some indefinite eternity later. "Yeah, they'll make it."

Rick nodded slowly and fell backwards to lie on his blanket.

The fire burnt all its fuel and clouds moved across the sky. Rick opened his eyes a couple of times, noting the sun's position and the accompanying time they had spent on that planet. After the fourth time he woke up from his doze, Daryl was leaning over him and offering a hand.

"We need t'move again," he announced and when Rick was standing, handed over a waterflask. "I woke everyone 'cept you, sleepyhead. We're good to go."  
Smirking at Rick's bewildered blinking, the hunter turned tail and sauntered in the direction of the Ring. As the rest of the group had been waiting on Rick, they all caught his startled expression and sniggered lightly. The atmosphere was relaxed and rested and once Rick could think more complex thoughts, he marvelled at Daryl's successful attempt at lifting everyone's spirits at the expense of the leader.

Especially now, when many were questioning Rick's mental state and right to authority, it was good to tease him, make him human. Shane had left a bad taste in everyone's mouth; Rick knew no one doubted that Shane had tried to kill him, because they had all seen the instability, but the fact that it had been right after Shane had opposed looking for Sophia made it all so delicate. It was because Rick hadn't wanted to give up on Sophia that Jimmy and Patricia were dead, and Shane had been right, even if it was said in the most callous possible way.

They should have cut Sophia as a loss.

Despite the continuing beratement inside his own mind, the mood outside it was considerably lighter. Carl was walking under his own power again, Carol was humming and weaving a basket decorated with large white flowers on the outside. Only Andrea was mulish in her silence, but Rick chalked that up to realising that Shane had been more unstable than previously thought. For her, he had been the example to follow; hardened and unemotional, he had seemed to thrive in the forced nomadic life they lived.

What it turned out that detachment had hidden, was a cracking mind that had finally found its niche in the world - killing. Hung up on Lori, Shane had convinced himself that only he could look after her and Carl, and that was why he had to get rid of Rick. A delusion that he hadn't been able to rein in due to his degrading mind, that Rick hadn't wanted to notice.

Reaching the Ring took only a few minutes; they had decided to camp close by, as the nearest cover available was the trees nearly two miles away, with nothing between there and the Ring. No one had wanted to be caught too far away with nowhere to hide from the Darts on the escape route. Carl was barely breaking a sweat in the early evening rays of this planet's pale yellowish light, which boded well for his healing wound.

Daryl pressed the last symbol on the Ring-caller and then hit the large button in the middle to call upon the Ring. The familiar _whoosh_ of the Ring-water bellowing outwards made Rick smile slightly despite all the problems and responsibility on his shoulders. Funny, how something can become comforting so quickly, even if it symbolised the constant Running and hiding they had to do to survive.

Rick reached back, over his shoulder, a bit further than the nape of his neck and rubbed the small lump there. That damn tracker, implanted to be impossible to remove. Even Carl had one, those sick, Wraith bastards. Even so, looking at the smooth surface of the Ring's centre, Rick felt steadied and ready.

With a nod to Daryl next to him, they stepped into the blue simultaneously, Wraith-stunners first, their dwindling family only a step behind.


End file.
